Big Day for 4,659 Donegal students starting Leaving and Junior Cert Exams

4,659 Donegal students will begin their State Leaving and Junior Certificate examinations this morning, the State Examination Commission (SEC) have confirmed.  

2,088 Donegal students will start their Leaving Certificate (LC) Exams, with the gender split just edging in front for some 1,079 female students with 990 male students across the county also beginning LC exams.

Another 2,571 Junior Cert students from Donegal will also be embarking on their first state examinations with 1,316 male students and 1,255 female students taking those examinations.

For LC students the first paper out of the blocks this morning is English Paper 1 (9.30am-12.20pm) and Home Economics, Scientific and Social in the afternoon (2-4.30pm). 

Meanwhile a further 170 students are expected to sit for their Applied Leaving Cert, which includes 56 females and 114 male students from the county. 

They begin with English & Communications this morning (9.45am-11.45am) and Social Education in the afternoon (2-4pm). 

Meanwhile, Junior Certs will have a two hour English paper this morning with a Religious Education paper in the afternoon.

The examinations will run until Tuesday June 27 June for Leaving Certificate (Established and Vocational) and Thursday, June 15 for Leaving Certificate Applied.

It will continue until Monday June 19 for Junior Cycle examinations.

In total, some 135,033 candidates are due to commence their Leaving Certificate, Leaving Certificate Applied and Junior Cycle examinations across the country in 5,697 main and some 9000 special examination centres through the network of over 800 post-primary schools and other venues recognised by the SEC. 

Delivery of the state examinations is a massive logistical exercise involving the secure distribution of 8,000 strong boxes containing four million examination papers to the examination superintendents responsible for supervising the written examinations. 

And, as already announced, the SEC intends to issue the 2023 Leaving Certificate and Leaving Certificate Applied examination results to candidates on Friday August 25. 

The intended Leaving Certificate results day is a full week earlier than the 2022 results date. 

Significant milestones

Speaking before the start of the examinations Mr. Pat Burke, Chairperson of the State Examinations Commission (SEC) said “The state examinations are a significant milestone for candidates, their families and school authorities. 

The examinations this year have been subject to appropriate adjustments, proportionate to the educational experience of the class of 2023 over the course of the pandemic. 

“On behalf of my fellow Commissioners and all of the staff of the SEC, I wish to offer sincere best wishes to all those taking the certificate examinations this year”.